PlotThe king of Goryeo Dynasty Korea attempts to shake off the dominance of Yuan Dynasty China and establish an autonomous state. He forms a palace guard composed of thirty six young soldiers, led by military commander Hong-rim. But the king faces betrayal when Hong-rim falls in love with both him and his wife, the queen from Yuan Dynasty.

CastJo In-sung as Hong Lim Ju Jin-mo as King Song Ji-hyo as Queen Shim Ji-ho as Seung-gi Im Joo Hwan as Han Baek Ye Wook hwan as Im-bo Song Joong Gi as No-tak Jang Ji Won as Bo-meok Kim Choon Gi as Hwang Nae-kwan Lee Jong Goo as Tae-Sa Kwon Tae Won as Jo Il-moon Do Young Goo as Gi Won-hong No Min Woo as Min Woo Do Ye seong as Choi Kwan

ProductionA Frozen Flower is based on a true story from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) Korea,[2] and takes its title from a song of that era which described the sexual relationships between men and women.[3] It is the fifth feature film by director Yoo Ha, who wanted to make a change from his previous works by doing a historical film, saying, "I always felt uncomfortable with the genre but I felt I should try to overcome those feelings. It is also a new challenge for me to focus on a melodrama".[2] He also stated that the film was "a love story between men".[4]

Jo In-sung was on board from the beginning of the project, and having turned down other acting roles to make A Frozen Flower his last work before enlisting for military service. He chose to appear in the film without knowing the exact details and having faith in the director following their earlier collaboration in 2005 on A Dirty Carnival. Jo began training for the role in August 2007, learning martial arts, fencing, horse riding and geomungo.[2][4] The casting of Ju Jin-mo as the king was announced in December 2007.[5]

The budget for A Frozen Flower was $10 million,[6] and the film went into production on 16 April 2008.[7] It was the first film to shoot at the newly built Jeonju Cinema Studio.[7]

The Koryo Dynasty (918-1932), one of the most interesting eras in Korean history, is in its fin this al stages. The king is young and strong-willed, increasingly unwilling to adopt the Koryo ruler's traditionally subservient position towards China. Around him he has gathered a group of warriors, headed by the fanatically loyal and talented Hong Lim. But the king's failure to produce an heir has left him vulnerable, and Yuan Dynasty rulers in China have demanded that the king's cousin be installed as crown prince. The potential for an outbreak of violence, either from inside or outside the palace walls, appears to be high.

From inside the monarch's private quarters, however, things are even more complicated. The king, it turns out, is gay, and locked in a love affair with Hong Lim. When the lack of an heir becomes untenable, he makes a bold proposal: for Hong Lim to secretly impregnate the queen. This, however, will not work out as he envisions¡¦

Rising director Yu Ha's first foray into period dramas is a heady mix of gaudy costumes, sharp weapons, jealous obsession, betrayal, bloodshed and lots of sex. It's a film that you experience viscerally. It is not out to reinvent the genre, or to introduce arthouse sensibilities to a medieval setting. It is simply an engaging story: a big, juicy steak of a movie.

Frozen Flower's primary strengths lie in the realm of storytelling, not only in the grand sweep of the narrative, but on a micro level as well. Director Yu seems particularly skilled at maintaining dramatic tension even in the simplest of scenes. As for the characters he creates, it's not that they are especially unique or memorable, but the gradual shift in the relationships between them are handled so smoothly that they are fascinating to watch.

The film's flaws too sometimes come into view. Although fairly high budget by Korean standards, some local viewers have criticised the art design and costumes as looking somewhat cheap and inauthentic. The plot also loses some of its momentum in the later reels, which were originally even longer before the director tightened them up just prior to its theatrical release.

Nonetheless even the film's critics have had positive words for the lead actors, who turned in some of the most solid performances of their careers to date. Zo In-sung as Hong Lim is perhaps the most crucial contributor in that it is his inner turmoil that mirrors the major developments of the plot. Until his breakout role in Yu Ha's previous film A Dirty Carnival, Zo was better known for his good looks than his acting talent, but here he manages to portray his character's emotional vulnerabilities without ever coming across as weak. His suffering eyes are one of the film's indelible images. Joo Jin-mo (200 Pound Beauty) as the King is also unexpectedly effective, capably portraying both the admirable and menacing aspects of the ruler's personality. Finally, Song Ji-hyo (Some) as the young Queen brings a quiet intensity to her role. Her developing relationship with Hong Lim is charged, but there is also a slightly detached, cold quality to their passion that suggests it is more the product of desperation than genuine affection.

One senses fairly early on in the film where all of this is headed, but it is exciting nonetheless to watch the various opposing forces play out. Although he has yet to achieve much international recognition, Yu Ha demonstrates again in this film that he is one of contemporary Korean cinema's most interesting voices. (Darcy Paquet)

Homosexuality is no longer a hush-hush topic for Korean filmmakers. But depictions of sexuality take another turn in "Ssanghwajeom (A Frozen Flower)," as a relationship between two men becomes a spiraling triangle of jealousy with an addition of a woman.

But the movie, to be released on Dec. 30, is not limited to sexual entanglement. Sex is used as a key tool to prod the plot forward, often at a rapid pace. To that end, director Yoo Ha includes plenty of explicit scenes of sex and graphic violence. The result, however, is somewhat mixed. The film's poetic justice produces an unlikely anti-hero.

Although the movie sets itself out as a historical drama set in the late Goryeo Dynasty, viewers should bear in mind that the story is purely fictional. The nation is now under the virtual rule of China's Yuan Dynasty, and Goryeo's king (Joo Jin-mo) has to produce a son to keep his position. The only problem is that he cannot sleep with a woman, much less have a romantic relationship with one.

The king's real romantic partner is none other than his chief bodyguard Hong Lim (Zo In-sung). The two have sex in the inner sanctums of the Goryeo court, and we are shown a graphic kiss scene between the king and Hong Lim, which is bound to shock some Korean viewers.

But the real shocker comes when the king decides to ask Hong Lim to sleep with his wife -- the queen (Song Ji-hyo). This idea is based on his assumption that all his political problems will go away once there is a royal son.

The king's miscalculation, of course, is that passionate romantic feelings sometimes form after sex. Hong Lim, who has never slept with a woman before, hesitates to touch the body of the queen at first, but once the physical bond is initiated, he finds himself totally enslaved.

Love triangle established, the plot sprints ahead with a portrayal of the uncontrollable anger and jealousy of the king, leaving heads rolling in the process.

Director Yoo seems to suggest that Hong Lim has long been subjected to a sort of coercion, rather than a real romantic relationship with the king. Hong is a mere subordinate, while the king has all the power, including the right to order his death.

The queen, for her part, discovers the liberating exhilaration when she falls in love with Hong Lim after years of neglect and inattention. She suffers a deep sense of guilt initially but she finds herself indulging in the dangerous liaisons with Hong Lim.

What is notable is that sex in "Ssanghwajeom" is deeply associated with death. Eros is often depicted in literature and film as being able to overcome everything. The feelings that interconnect Hong Lim and the queen could backfire lethally because they are cheating on the almighty king.

As far as a plot is concerned, the unfortunate queen and her lover bravely defy the obstacles to prove that mutual love is more powerful than unrequited passion. The king's relationship with Hong Lim has been futile and one-sided. Failing to confirm whether his bodyguard is truly in love with him, he comes to realize that he is totally alone.

It is a pity that the king, trapped in a man's body, is betrayed by his secret lover. What the king fails to notice is that Hong Lim is a bisexual who prefers heterosexual sex.

But Joo Jin-mo does not have to lament his role. It is Zo In-sung who fails to create much-needed emotional subtlety and often delivers his lines in an annoyingly mechanical fashion. In contrast, Joo Jin-mo emerges as the ultimate winner in the film. Joo pulls off creating a complex and nuanced character with whom audiences will be able to sympathize, rescuing a film that might be otherwise fall into the trap of having too much sex and violence.

Controversies are likely will up in the air with the releasing of Korean period epic romance “A Frozen Flower” or “Ssanghwajeom.” Based on a true story from Goryeo Dynasty Korea (918-1392), the film which directed by Yoo Ha (A Dirty Carnival, Spirit of Jeet Keun Do) has taken its title from a song of that era which described the sexual relationships between men and women.

But in a resemblance to Ang Lee’s acclaimed drama, “Brokeback Mountain,” it’s also a melodrama that following a secreted homosexual love, which take place between King of Goryeo and his bodyguard. As the director also has said that the film was "a love story between men". Yoo Ha who wanted to make a change from his previous works by doing a historical film with this fifth feature film of him, saying, "I always felt uncomfortable with the genre but I felt I should try to overcome those feelings.

It is also a new challenge for me to focus on a melodrama". Previously, director Yoo Ha has been widely acclaimed by moviegoers and critics alike for bringing out violence and collectivity from deep within the human soul, as well as for his provocative view on conventional ideas.

With this film, Yoo Ha also reunited with Korean actor Jo In-sung who both last worked together in 2006 "A Dirty Carnival”, which won Jo the lead male actor award at the 2006 Korea Film Awards.Playing the king role is another popular actor in Korea, Joo Jin-mo(A Love, 200 Pounds Beauty) and as the female lead, a queen besieged by the Goryoe king and his men is starlet Song Ji-hyo.

Together they will romp in the dramatic sequences of this story that deal with love and betrayal which offer an insight to human nature. Last Korean period flick which also dealt with some sexual references was “Portrait of a Beauty,” are all of these had indicated that the Korean producers will continue to making a film with this theme?

Synopsis: In the end of Goryeo era politically manipulated by the Yuan Dynasty, the ambitious King of the Goryeo Dynasty organizes Kunryongwe. Hong Lim, the commander of Kunryongwe, captivates the King of Goryeo, and the Queen keeps her eyes on the relationship between Hong Lim and the King with a reluctant view. Meanwhile, the bilateral relation between Goryeo and the Yuan gets worse as Yuan demands to install the cousin of the King in the Crown Prince of Goryeo with ascribing it to no son the King has. The King refuses it resolutely, so the high-ranking officials of Goryeo, who are in submission to Yuan, are discontented with the king. One day, the King gives Hong Lim a covert yet unobjectionable order to sleep with the Queen instead of himself to protect the independence of Goryeo from the Yuan by making a son, the successor to Goryeo throne.

Some frozen facts of the flower:

# Jo In-sung was onboard from the beginning of the project, having turned down other acting roles to make “A Frozen Flower” his last work before enlisting for military service. He choose to appear in the film without knowing the exact details, having faith in the director following their earlier collaboration in 2005 on “A Dirty Carnival.”

# Jo In-Sung has been preparing for the role as a warrior for several months by taking up lessons for horseback riding, martial arts, and the geomungo.

# It was the first film to shoot at the newly built Jeonju Cinema Studio.

# Universal Pictures also has joint venture to produce this film.

# Bed scene between the two actors is making a headline, especially, due to the fact that the director Yoo has been known for racy sex scenes in his "Crazy Marriage."

# The studio also has marketed the film with releasing a teaser trailer which revealing a sexual scene between the bodyguard played by Jo In-sung and Song Ji-hyo as the queen.

One of Korea's most talked about films of 2008, A Frozen Flower goes behind the royal curtain to unveil an emotionally charged saga of love, sex, politics, and betrayal during the final days of the Goryeo Dynasty. Like The King and The Clown, A Frozen Flower tore down taboos to blockbuster reception with the depiction of homosexual love between a king and his bodyguard. But A Frozen Flower takes it many steps further on an erotic level, making headlines for its nudity and explicit sex scenes and setting a new box office record for adult-rated films. Teaming up again with A Dirty Carnival director Yoo Ha for his last film before entering military service, Jo In Sung delivers the boldest performance of his career as a warrior torn between the bedchambers of the King and Queen. Ju Jin Mo (200 Pounds Beauty) won Best Actor at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards for his magnificent turn as the King in love with his right-hand man, while Song Ji Hyo (Sex is Zero 2, Jumong) makes her big-screen breakthrough as the Queen doomed by her own sexual and romantic awakening.

Under the thumb of the Yuan Dynasty, the Goryeo King (Ju Jin Mo) is pressured to either produce an heir or name his cousin the Crown Prince. The King's true love, however, is his chief bodyguard Hong Lim (Jo In Sung), and he has never so much as touched the Queen (Song Ji Hyo). The King instead asks Hong Lim to sleep with the Queen, believing his problems to be solved as long as a son can be produced. But Hong Lim and the Queen's sexual encounter marks the beginning of a dangerous and passionate triangle of forbidden love, jealous rage, and heartbreaking betrayal.